Summer 2025 President’s Report | Australian Wagyu Association

Dear Members,

It is an honour to serve you in my second year as President of the Australian Wagyu Association. I would like to thank the Board for their show of confidence in electing me as President again and entrusting me with this responsibility for the next 12 months.

Changes to the AWA Board:

To the retiring directors, Glen Wright and Richard Puddicombe, I thank you both for your service. Glen oversaw the Conference and Competitions Committee, which delivered the two largest WagyuEdge conferences to date. Richard was a key member of the Audit and Finance Committee and the Conference and Competition Committee.

I would like to welcome Nathan Roberts and Stephen Gibbons to the board. Both come with a wealth of industry relevant knowledge and professional skill sets that complement the Board skill matrix well. I am sure that both Nathan and Stephen will make significant contributions during their tenure. To the existing Board, thank you for continuing your service to the Members. Your voluntary contribution is very much appreciated.

Mr Laird Morgan – President and Chair of the Board
Mr Jeremy Cooper – Senior Vice President
Ms Robyn Elphick – Junior Vice President
Mr Hamish McIntyre – Treasurer
Mr Stephen Gibbons – New AWA Board Member
Ms Gina Lincoln
Mr Dean Pollard
Mr Nathan Roberts – New AWA Board Member
Mr Adam Withers

Current Market Conditions:

Reflecting on the current markets, the Wagyu market is now maturing, it is now a mainstream part of the industry. We typically see a premium in Wagyu markets of between 10% to 50%, which can be heavily influenced by the data and performance history of cattle, particularly F1 cattle. With this, I raise the AWA’s Wagyu Feeder Check tool as an important piece of data to help support the marketing and promotion of your feeder cattle.

As a feedlotter, we see the Wagyu Feeder Check as important piece of the puzzle when we are buying feeder cattle. It helps us plan our feeding programs and the Wagyu Feeder Check is becoming a serious component of our consideration when buying feeder cattle. Using the Wagyu Feeder Check data, we can plan to exit the bottoms of a line of cattle early and plan our feeding program appropriately for the high performance animals, with these animals spending less time in the feedlot to meet carcase specifications. This will be increasingly important as we seek to improve sustainability and resource use through long-fed programs.

Looking into 2025, there are market signals from our partners that prices for Wagyu beef globally should improve towards the end of the year. As always, the Wagyu game is a long one and staying the course delivers the highest returns through developed and reliable supply relationships as demand picks up.

AWA Board Focus:

We are very aware that it is the members who submit their data to AWA, and that our members do this trusting that AWA is using this information with integrity and for the good of the breed. It is satisfying to see the delivery of tools back to members to assist them to better manage and use genetic diversity to improve the sustainability of our genetic resources for future generations.

Twelve months ago, I indicated that the AWA was undertaking projects to help members maintain and optimise Genetic Diversity and manage inbreeding within the Wagyu population. This has been an important part of the AWA Board’s focus. We have now completed these projects, with Genetic Diversity and Genomic Inbreeding now published for AWA members. These innovations add value to the investments already made by Members in undertaking genotyping with the AWA.

The AWA will continue to add value to your investments with us. If you wish to maximise your value return from your DNA investments, please keep in mind that our genomic innovations are only able to be delivered from high density genomic tools. We encourage all Members to maximise the value they get from their spend on genomics by testing with the AWA using genomic DNA testing. This is data in the bank that will continue to deliver value for you in the future, rather than one off parentage which might give you a registration, but no additional value.

The AWA Board has communicated previously (2022) that it has undertaken projects to evaluate external genetic services and database providers. This work has been significantly progressed during the last 12 months and the AWA is now able to undertake complete genetic analysis for Wagyu to fully define the genetic parameters and trait relationships for Wagyu cattle. We have also completed the transition to Wagyu-specific selection indexes with the launch of our new F1 Terminal and Fullblood Terminal Indexes with AbacusBio.

The initiatives and progress of the AWA over the last several years is something I’m very proud of contributing to and intend to continue to build on during the next twelve months. The vision of past Boards is being built on today and we endeavour to always push forward with our research and development delivery for the Wagyu breed.

I look forward to being accessible to and working with all members during the coming 12 months as we launch our AWA 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. The purpose of our organisation has been refined to “For our Members, For the Industry”. I believe this purpose defines the DNA of the Australian Wagyu Association and your Board will continue to drive our organisation forward to deliver for you.

Sincerely,

Laird Morgan

President of the Australian Wagyu Association

Important Notice and Disclaimer

It is very important that you appreciate when viewing the AWA database that the information contained on the AWA database, including but not limited to pedigree, DNA information, Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) and Index values, is based on data supplied by members and/or third parties.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information reported through AWA, AWA officers and employees assume no responsibility for its content, use or interpretation. AWA disclaims all liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you may incur as a result of the use by you of the data on this AWA database and the information supplied by ABRI and AGBU being inaccurate or incomplete in any way for any reason.

Regarding EBVs and Index values, it is very important to appreciate, and you need to be aware that:

EBVs are derived using Wagyu Single Step BREEDPLAN technology developed independently by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), using the information contained within the AWA database.
AGBU is a joint venture of NSW Department of Primary Industries and the University of New England, which receives funding for this purpose from Meat and Livestock Australia Limited.
AWA relies solely on advice provided by AGBU and ABRI in accepting Wagyu Single Step BREEDPLAN software.
EBVs published in Wagyu Single Step BREEDPLAN are estimates of genetic potential of individual animals and may not reflect the raw animal phenotype.
EBVs can only be directly compared to other EBVs calculated in the same monthly Wagyu Group BREEDPLAN analysis.

Regarding pedigree and DNA testing results submitted to the AWA, it is very important to appreciate, and you need to be aware that:

Animals whose registration identifiers start with PED are Pedigree Recorded Animals. What this means is that the details which Australia Wagyu Association Limited (AWA) used to register the animal were obtained from a Recognised Wagyu Registry Organisation – in other words a Wagyu breed association based outside of Australia. AWA has not independently verified the information with respect to the animal or the details recorded about the animal. You should read AWA’s by-laws which sets out details regarding the definition of a Pedigree Recorded Animal.
Future events cannot be predicted accurately. AWA makes no statements, representations or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of, and you should not rely on, any information contained in the registration details of this animal or their capability to achieve any purpose. AWA disclaims all liability (including without limitation, liability for negligence) for all claims, expenses, losses, damages and costs you may incur as a result of the information set out in the registration details of this animal for any reason being inaccurate or incomplete in any way or incapable of achieving any purpose.
Pedigree and DNA data submitted and supplied to AWA may have errors in it which cannot be detected without further DNA testing.
Technology may have advanced since a particular test was undertaken so that previous inaccuracies which were not detectable are now able to be detected by current testing technology.
AWA estimates that less than 1% of the pedigree entries, ownership or breeding details in the AWA Herdbook may have errors or which may be misleading. For this reason, users ought to consider if they need to obtain independent testing of the relevant animal (if possible) to ensure that the data is accurate.

Regarding prefectural content, it is very important to appreciate, and you need to be aware that:

Prefectural content is based on the estimation of prefectural origin from Japanese breeding records of 201 foundation sires and 168 foundation dams. As genotype-based parent verification is not used in Japan, and full Japanese registration certificates are not available for all foundation animals, exact prefectural composition for these sires and dams cannot be validated.
The calculation of prefectural content for Australian Herdbook animals relies on the accuracy of pedigree records and DNA samples provided by AWA members.
The reporting of prefectural content for animals within the AWA Herdbook relies on the calculation provided by ABRI.

If you consider that you do not understand or appreciate the nature and extent of the data provided on this website or the EBVs of a particular animal, then AWA strongly recommends that you seek independent expert advice.

Summer 2025 President's Report

Building a resilient future: banking on data for continued success